By: Zach Utsler

Soccer is a wonderful sport that immediately brings to mind a healthy competition comprised of skill and determination. Unfortunately, the Beautiful game is not always so beautiful.  Throughout the world there are several cases where racism and prejudice tarnish its’ luster.  Not all of us in the U.S. are aware of the scope this subject heeds so to get a little background you can check out this link or do a little googling yourself there are even some decent videos on youtube. Racism in Football

There have been numerous campaigns, sanctions, and fines that have been applied in an attempt to curb the problem.  Yet, the issue still exists.  Most recently in Italy, Juventus was ordered to play their next home game closed off to spectators for alleged racist chants from their fans towards Inter Milan striker Mario Balotelli.  This has spawned a new idea from the UEFA president Michel Platini, which he introduced just a couple days ago.  His suggestion is to give referees during a match the power to stop the game for up to 10 minutes and if the misconduct in the stands is not controlled then the game can be ended.  This seems to be a pretty bold idea and I’m sure it will be met with a fair share of praise and opposition.

It is certainly a sensitive issue and as I mentioned before there have been many attempts to figure out how best to handle it.  Personally, I do believe that there needs to be stricter punishment for these situations whether it has an affect on the team, organization, tv broadcasters, or not.  I’m hard pressed to think of a plan that would only punish the fan base, because they are such a large part of what makes an organization thrive. There really is no place for such cruelty in the game or outside of it for that matter.  I think there is a big difference between taunting an opposing team and singling out a player/players because of race, religion, or creed. Heck! Whatever happened to just cheering for your own side?

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I’m sure some of you have ideas about what can be done to curb this issue.  Maybe just adding something to what UEFA is discussing now.  Let us know what you think.

by: Chris Lobkovich

This week, we are going to shift gears a little bit and not lay waste to something absurd in the soccer world.  Instead, I would like to comment on a special event that is happening this week.  That’s right.  I am of course talking about Eric Fulton, our fearless leader, becoming eligible to play in the old farts league.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUCKA!

That’s right, the big 3-0. Don’t feel bad, from what I understand, it happens to the best of us at some point!

And I would also like to take this opportunity, to bring to light and thank Eric for all the hard work he does running the club and providing us with such a fantastic environment to play soccer in.  I’d be willing to guess that in any given week Eric logs about twenty or so planning practices, recruiting players, talking shit about your MLS fantasy squad and all the other stuff that goes along with running the club.  It is no easy task keeping us bums in line!

Thanks for all your hard work and dedication and again,  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!